Shares of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International fell the most in five months as the Costa Mesa drug developer regroups after its president quit last month. Valeant reported April 1 that its president, Charles J. Bramlage, quit in late March and that it couldn't estimate the costs of a planned restructuring, which includes firings and asset sales. The price fell $1.12, or 8.3%, to $12.44 a share, and earlier declined 10%. Valeant also fell in early November after third-quarter earnings missed estimates.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International reported a second-quarter loss as the Aliso Viejo company continued to pare its operations by eliminating businesses overseas. Valeant posted a loss of $74.6 million, or 83 cents a share, compared with a profit of $16.9 million, or 18 cents, a year earlier. Revenue fell 6% to $206.8 million. Excluding one-time items, Valeant recorded a loss of 6 cents a share. On average, analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected a loss of a penny a share.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, the developer of a novel drug for epilepsy, said Tuesday that its president had quit and that it might have to fire staff and sell assets. Valeant President Charles J. Bramlage resigned last week and "has agreed to assist the company with transition matters over the coming weeks," the Costa Mesa-based company said in a regulatory filing.

Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc., the Irvine maker of eye medications that fought off a hostile takeover bid this year, agreed to be bought by Bausch & Lomb Inc. for $500 million. Bausch will pay $9.10 a share in cash for Ista, and the deal should close in the second quarter, the companies said Monday. The bid from the Rochester, N.Y., eye-care company, owned by Warburg Pincus, is 8.6% higher than Monday's closing price for Ista of $8.38 a share. Ista, which sells Istalol for intraocular pressure and Bromday for issues associated with cataract extraction, rebuffed a $327-million hostile bid by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., calling it "grossly inadequate.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International's former president must repay the drug maker at least $4.8 million over a bonus tied to a unit's aborted spinoff, a Delaware judge has ruled. Valeant directors, led by former Chief Executive Milan Panic, violated their duties to shareholders by awarding the bonus to Adam Jerney after the company sold 20% of its Ribapharm hepatitis drug unit to the public, Chancery Judge Stephen Lamb found. A planned spinoff was later abandoned.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., Canada's largest publicly traded drug maker, agreed to buy Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. for $2.6 billion to expand in wrinkle treatments and other skin care products. Valeant said it will pay $44 in cash for each share of Medicis, 39% more than the Scottsdale, Ariz., firm's Friday closing price. The transaction will close in the first half of 2013, Montreal-based Valeant said in a statement. The deal would be the largest for Valeant since it was created in a 2010 merger of Canada's Biovail Corp.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., Canada's largest publicly traded drug maker, is continuing an acquisition spree with an agreement to buy eye-care giant Bausch & Lomb Holdings Inc. for $4.5 billion. The Montreal company, which announced the deal Monday, said it also would pay $4.2 billion in debt owed by privately held Bausch & Lomb, a major manufacturer of contact lenses. Calling Bausch & Lomb a “world-renowned brand,” Valeant's chairman and chief executive, J. Michael Pearson, said the deal would “transform Valeant into a global leader in eye health.” GALLERY: Biggest Southern California companies Valeant said it expects to squeeze out $800 million in annual cost savings by the end 2014 after merging Bausch & Lomb, which is based in Rochester, N.Y., with Valeant's much smaller eye-care operations.

Allergan Inc., the Irvine company that makes Botox, has adopted a "poison pill" defense that could make it more difficult for Canadian company Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and activist investor Bill Ackman to force through a takeover bid. The company's "stockholder rights plan" would allow existing shareholders to buy Allergan stock at a steep discount if any single investor acquires more than 10% of its shares. The move prevents Ackman, who disclosed earlier this week that he had acquired 9.7% of Allergan's shares, from significantly increasing his holding.

Swiss pharmaceutical titan Novartis AG on Tuesday announced an overhaul of its operations that involved several multibillion-dollar deals with GlaxoSmithKline intended to allow Novartis to focus on its oncology business and boost profitability, the companies said. The spate of deals follows recent consolidations in the pharmaceutical industry with large price tags, including the $5.6-billion acquisition of an Anaheim specialty drug firm by Irish pharmaceutical company Mallinckrodt this month.